Yan Wei stared at the portrait for a while.
The facial features of the woman in the portrait are exquisite and beautiful, and some temperament can be seen in the two-dimensional photos, and the pair of braids that hang down add a bit of softness to her. Especially those eyes, like peach petals, are slightly raised at the end of the eyes, and the smile is full of agility.
The artist's self-portrait and the doctor's correct ID photo were placed together, smiling at Yan Wei.
Yan Wei's eyes narrowed slightly, and the clues he saw after entering the dungeon gradually flashed through his mind.
The person in the painting who can drag people into the painting to dig out eyes, the painter who can climb out of the painting to dig out people's eyes and then climb back into the painting, and the waiter who is obviously not the first time to clean up the corpse.
Several scattered lines are interspersed with this medical record, and they are connected in series into a solid and logical line.
He took out a wet tissue, carefully wiped the dust from the printer on his fingertips, and said in a clear voice: "When the woman in the long skirt died last night, Yan Mingguang and I went to the scene and found that the waiter was not the first This is the first time to pick up the body. This shows that the first woman in a long skirt who died was not the first victim."
Yan Wei rested his chin and moved his fingers slightly, "Our present copy obviously doesn't require us to find someone who is still alive but missing. Missing means death. In other words, this clue is actually telling us—this The female doctor died, on July 3rd, the day when the painter's mental illness suddenly recovered... and his portrait is also the only complete portrait painted by the painter in his later period."
An idea suddenly popped into my mind.
Outside the archives, the footsteps of the staff were getting closer.
Yan Mingguang took a few steps to the door and took a look outside. He leaned against the shutter of the archive room and said in a low voice, "Someone is coming this way."
The light coming in through the blinds was stretched into parallel lines one after another, and sprinkled on the man's face, revealing a rare sense of peace on his very alienated face. The silver-framed glasses weakened the sharpness of this deep face, and added a bit of gentle and elegant temperament.
This person was covered with ice when he refused people thousands of miles away, but if he got along with him a little bit, he would find that Yan Mingguang was actually easier to get along with than someone like Yan Wei, who had a smile that never left his heart.
Yan Wei raced against time to admire Yan Mingguang under the soft halo, then made a decisive decision, picked up the printed materials, grabbed Gao Ming, and said, "Go, go back, I have an idea that needs to be confirmed."
"Back to the hotel?" Gao Ming asked.
"Yes," Yan Wei blinked, thick eyelashes cast a faint shadow under the staggered light of the archive room, "let's go back to the hotel and go to... the studio."
Although the hospital was not too far from the hotel, and it took only 20 minutes to walk, Yan Wei and the three spent a lot of time searching for clues in the hospital, and it was already afternoon when they returned to the Promenade Hotel.
Fortunately, the dungeon didn't ask them to go back to the dining room for lunch on time. After they came back, they ate bread whole and rushed straight to the studio on the top floor.
The hotel with no residents is very quiet, and the rows of portraits on the promenade are quiet for no reason, but eerily cool. On the top floor of the hotel, the door of Room 1 was still ajar casually, and the door of the studio was also left wide open.
Yan Mingguang walked in the front, holding his short blade in his hand. Yan Wei and Gao Ming also followed behind, walking slowly to the front of the studio.
Fortunately, there is no danger for the time being.
Yan Mingguang, who was walking in the front, moved his indifferent expression slightly, and his dark eyes flashed with surprise for a moment.
Yan Wei raised his eyebrows, walked up to look inside: "What's wrong—"
He spoke suddenly.
All three saw the changes in the studio.
Maybe it's not a change. Everything in the studio is still the same as yesterday, with empty and eyeless portraits all over the walls. Everything seemed very quiet, without any waves.
The complete portrait of the female doctor is still on the easel in the middle.
But on the other easel next to this easel... there is a complete painting!
Yan Wei's memory has always been good. He clearly remembered that on this easel yesterday, there was a portrait of a woman in a classical court dress. The eye sockets of the woman in the painting are empty, and the eyes are blank, lacking the last step of giving agility.
But now, the painting has become vivid, with a pair of complete and beautiful eyes. "She" looked forward, smiled lightly, and her big beautiful eyes were slightly bent, becoming another complete and vivid portrait in this studio besides the portrait of the female doctor.
Gao Ming's eyes widened, and his breathing stopped for a moment. He patted Yan Wei, and said in a hesitant tone: "The eyes of the woman in this portrait, the eyes are similar to..."
Yan Mingguang raised his eyes slowly, the silver-rimmed glasses made him noble and indifferent, and his deep black eyes became more and more solemn under the slight reflection of the lenses. "Yesterday's dead," he said.
As soon as these words came out, the surrounding air seemed to be a little cooler.
Yan Wei has slowly sorted out the clues.
He put his hands in his pockets, subconsciously closed the windbreaker, and came to a conclusion: "It's very clear-gouging eyes and filling in pictures."
Why did the painter who advocated perfectionism get sicker and worse on July 2 ten years ago, but he suddenly recovered the next day, that is, on July 3 ten years ago
The artist obviously can no longer draw eyes that satisfy him, so why is there still a complete portrait of a female doctor in the studio
Yan Wei blinked slowly, and a clear understanding gradually emerged in those beautiful light-colored eyes.
He spoke out the inference: "Let us restore the whole context."
"A painter who is very talented from the beginning, he can draw beautiful and smart eyes. He is a perfectionist, and he goes deeper and deeper on the road of pursuing the level. He made a lot of money by virtue of this, and he even opened this The gallery hotel where the paintings are displayed. But one day, the artist’s spiritual energy was exhausted, and he couldn’t draw the eyes that satisfied him at all, so he drew one painting after another lacking eyes, and went to the hospital to see the mental illness. But it was useless to see a doctor, not only did he not heal, but he couldn't draw more and more. But then, on July 3, ten years ago, he found a way to draw the eyes again, and he recovered."
In the studio, the female doctor in the portrait tilted her head slightly and looked forward with a smile, with a gentle expression and soft eyes. Just like her in the ID photo, it can be seen at a glance that she is a good doctor with patience and good temper.
He looked at this perfect painting, but felt a chill down his spine.
"And this method..." Yan Wei's tone became more and more slow, "It's just digging out eyes and filling them in."
"He asked the doctor to come to the hotel, dug out her eyes, and drew this complete portrait of the female doctor. It wasn't the first time the waiter cleaned up the corpse, nor did he clean up the first player who died in the hotel lobby Corpse, that’s because the waiter cleaned the corpse whose eye was gouged out by the painter. The first corpse he cleaned belonged to the female doctor, and the second corpse he cleaned was the player whose eye was gouged out by the painter—the woman in the long skirt.”
Yan Wei turned his head, glanced at the door of Room No. 1 on the other side of the corridor, and hooked the corners of his mouth in such a dangerous and weird situation, "There are five rooms, and we have nine initial players coming in. In the beginning, everyone I just asked, if the first player is not dead and the number of players is odd, how should the waiter allocate the room?"
"Now I guess, the initial arrangement of this dungeon is that one person lives in Room 1, and the remaining eight people live in rooms 2 to 5 in pairs. Room 1 is the place where the female doctor's eyes were gouged out and she died. , she was the first deceased. Including her, the deceased who was originally in the dungeon, there are a total of ten people and five rooms. It's just that because we died one person at the beginning, there is no need for anyone to stay in Room 1. .”
"My God..." Gao Ming swallowed, grabbed his cuff and wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, "What you said makes perfect sense logically. Although I can somewhat guess about the gouging of eyes now, the waiter and a I didn't think about the details of the number room at all. So our crisis is that the ghost transformed by the painter will crawl out of the painting and goug the player's eyes to fill in the painting?"
Yan Wei nodded lightly, frowned and said, "I think—"
He paused.
On the narrow, long and deep corridor, a fine wind blows from nowhere, bringing a bit of coolness to Yan Wei's ankles that are not wrapped by trouser legs.
Yan Wei suddenly felt like a light was on his back, and there seemed to be something watching him in the dark! This feeling is even colder than the feeling of being spied on when walking on the promenade with the waiter on the first day.
He suddenly turned his head and looked at the empty corridor behind him, but only saw the intersection of mirrors and portraits on the corridor, reflecting countless portraits of women. The entire corridor was silent and empty, except for the three of them, there was no one else.
That feeling also suddenly dissipated.
But when Yan Wei turned around, the feeling of being spied on from behind suddenly reappeared, and the cool feeling seemed to be lying on the back of his neck, following him like a shadow.
Before he could speak, Yan Mingguang sensed something was wrong, and said concisely: "It's dangerous here, go back to the room and talk."
Yan Wei said in a low voice, at a volume that only Yan Mingguang could hear: "I may be targeted, but I have a debuff on me, so I shouldn't be able to escape no matter what."
It's just... he still has time, and before 12 o'clock tonight, he is still in an undead state, so there is still a lot of room for mediation.
Even if he encounters a ghost, Yan Wei believes that he can deal with it. There must be answers to the problems in the dungeon. As long as there are answers, there is a chance, and he can find a way to find them.
In such a treacherous environment, Yan Wei actually smiled, ignoring the feeling of something on his back, and shrugged, "Let's go."
The three went straight to Room 5 where Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang lived.
But as soon as they stepped out of the elevator and before they entered the door, the three of them paused, and their eyes fell on a part of the long corridor.
Yan Wei stood in front of the room door, tilting his head, staring at the trash bins that had been completely set up, feeling the chill behind him getting more and more oppressive.
He said to Gao Ming: "When I went downstairs in the morning, this trash can was overturned, and beside it were two dolls whose eyes had been gouged out."
In front of the door, Yan Mingguang's indifferent voice also sounded: "There are no bloody fingerprints in the room."
Yan Wei's heart skipped a beat.
The body of the woman in the long skirt, they watched the waiter take it away. Although the picture makes people feel cold in the bottom of their hearts, at least they saw it with their own eyes. Sometimes, the invisible unknown is more terrifying than the visible blood.
This kind of trace that I don't know when it will disappear makes people sweat even more.
Gao Ming also felt that such a situation was really scary. He shook Yan Wei's hand and said, "Why don't we go into the house...there are paintings hanging outside, so it's better to feel safer in the room."
Yan Wei nodded.
He still took a careful look at the restored trash can, and after confirming that no details were missed, he went back to the room with Yan Mingguang and Gao Ming.
As soon as he entered the room, Yan Wei quickly closed the door.
He walked to the desk, picked up the note paper and pen, sorted out the clues, and said, "There should be no doubts about digging out the eyes and filling in the paintings. But when we woke up in the morning, the traces we saw were all gone. They disappeared naturally. It is unlikely... After all, I also had bloody handprints on my neck before, and the touch is not fake. It should be cleaned up by the waiter. The cleaned up dolls and bloody handprints... "
Gao Ming didn't take it too seriously, and said: "In my previous dungeons, things related to ghost traces are usually cleaned up by a certain boss or NPC in the building. This is a good thing, if it is automatically restored by the rules in the building, On the contrary, it means that there are other laws that need us to discover. Our top priority now is to find clues to the ladder. If the crisis in this dungeon is ghosts digging out eyes to fill in the painting, what is the ladder? How can we deal with it to pass the level?... Yan Wei ?What are you thinking?"
Yan Wei didn't speak.
The young man sitting on the chair leaned back slightly, threw away the pen and paper in his hand, and looked forward with deep eyes, as if he was thinking about something.
He took out the coin in his pocket, tossed it in his hands casually over and over again, recalling everything since he entered the dungeon in his mind. Coins fell on his warm palm again and again, the wall clock on the wall moved back bit by bit, and time passed slowly with the sound of ticking.
This is Yan Wei's habit.
He is not a person who likes stability, he often wanders in various places, and always has some loose money in his pocket for tips. Over time, every time he thinks and has nothing to do at hand, flipping a coin can make him Thinking is easier.
"Yan Wei, your coin..." Gao Ming pushed his glasses, "Why does it feel different? Isn't it money?"
Yan Wei's brows twitched: "I found someone to order, not money, I carried it with me and threw it away."
The coin has a swallow on the obverse and a capital "V" on the reverse as a homophony of his single name. It's just that he asked someone to order two at the beginning, and he didn't know when he lost one, but now there is only one.
Yan Weifu lowered his head again, the coin fell into his palm, and the resting swallow came into view. He slowly gathered his palm and wrapped the coin, and the clues were also gathered at this moment.
Logic weaves a fine and complicated net in Yan Wei's mind, and the clues are intertwined, as if there are clues everywhere, but he doesn't know which one to find out.
It seems like everything is explained.
But Yan Wei always felt that... something was wrong.
On the other end, Sun Shi and three other players came to the art exhibition.
The paintings in the exhibition are also the works of the owner of the Promenade Hotel. Again, like the portraits displayed in the hotel, these were painted during the artist's early and middle years of fame, without any later paintings.
The four players inquired about the background of some painters together. When they were searching the art exhibition, they were suddenly dragged into a small level in a dungeon. The portraits in the exhibition suddenly came alive, and women who came out of the paintings kept trying to pull them into the world in the paintings.
The three initial players were trembling with fright, but Sun Shi remained calm. He is actually a third-tier player, but he failed too badly in the previous dungeon and was downgraded to a first-tier player.
He originally thought that the first floor would be easy, but he didn't expect that this first floor dungeon was extremely difficult, and he just passively opened the gambling building because of the difficulty exceeding the standard! All the props he got with good luck before were used up in the small level of this dungeon!
Fortunately, props are not white flowers. After Sun Shi and others passed the checkpoint of the art exhibition, they found a prop behind a mirror in the art exhibition—a diary.
The diary doesn't look old, but rather new, it seems to be well preserved. There is a name written on the cover of the diary, which is exactly the same as the name of the artist Sun Shi and the others found out at the art exhibition.
The four of them were overjoyed.
This is a painter's diary!
If something like a diary appears in the dungeon, it will definitely bring out a lot of clues—after all, this is a secret written from the first perspective of the person who wrote the diary. And when he was in the world inside the building, he also analyzed some low-level dungeons, basically finding clues and using them to escape, without too many twists and turns.
There must be most of the painter's clues here!
While holding the diary carefully, Sun Shi impatiently opened the first page of the diary.
- "..."
—“… If there is a person who loves the most in heaven, it must be me. They can’t draw such vivid eyes, but I can, I don’t even need skills, and I can make the people in the painting have life!…”
—“… I’m getting better and better. It’s great, they are all rushing to buy my paintings…”
- "..."
—“Why do my drawn eyes look bad? This is an insult to me! It can’t be my level!…”
—"I really can't draw! I'm crazy, the talent I'm most proud of is gone, without talent, without skills, I'm just a puddle of mud! … "
— "I've tried so many times, I really can't draw it. I've done so many portraits, but I can't even fill them in with eyes! I can't stand drawing bad eyes, and I'd rather not draw them. No, I wanted to paint it, but I had to paint the perfect portrait!"
- "..."
— "...I found a way. I can draw it, my talent is back! My paintings, they all have perfect eyes. I want to fill their eyes, this is my only obsession read..."
- "..."
Sun Shi flipped through this well-preserved notebook page by page, and his eyes were gradually covered by the expanding joy.
He laughed a few times, and said to other players: "I found the clue to the ladder! Those trash are still wasting time in the hotel, and it turns out that the painting exhibition has more valuable clues than the hotel! Players with eyes, and those portraits without eyes... This painter can’t draw eyes, so it’s his obsession to dig out people’s eyes instead, and let those works without eyes be filled with eyes.”
"We just need to go back to the studio and fill in all the eyes of those portraits before the end of tomorrow to find the ladder!"
The world inside the building, in the center of the entertainment area, in front of the projection of the gambling building.
Before the projection of a freshly refreshed first-level dungeon, several players in the buffer period of the dungeon stopped here, hesitating whether to enter the gambling game—a first-level dungeon game is rare, and such a novice dungeon, after the difficulty is raised, There is a high probability that the entire army will be wiped out. As long as the players who bet on this dungeon fail to pass the level, this seems to be a gamble with a high probability of winning.
The young man dressed in very punk stood under the projection, casually watched the process of Sun Shi and others looking for clues in the exhibition, and curled his lips in disdain.
"He's going in the wrong direction. An idiot," he said to the younger youth beside him, "even the most powerful player is so stupid, this dungeon is impossible to succeed. Brother, you place your bet, choose them to pass the level and fail .”